540 Valve Cover change - lots of pictures by kbsilver

6 minute read

540 Valve Cover change - lots of pictures 

Compliments of kbsilver @ bimmerforums.com

3-8-2008

Car is a 2000 540iT with 100K miles. Was time for a tuneup and getting to those leaky valve cover gaskets. Was tired of that bubbling/flaking gold paint so inspired by others on these boards, went the powder coating route. This is not a DIY instructional write up, just sharing the pictures of what was found and the end results. I know I look forward to seeing other peoples results for projects planned in the future. Tuneup consisted of changing plugs (still originals in it best I can tell) and O2 sensors. I was expecting a big battle getting 8 year old O2 sensors out, but they broke free with little resistance. Without question the most difficult part of the project was getting those $#%^& clips off the fuel injector connectors so you can lift the eBoxs out of the way. Second most difficult part was getting the driver side valve cover back on while not dropping the gaskets as between the fuel line, brake vacuum line and the hot water circ pump, is a very tight fit. Spent 30 minutes with a mirror and flashlight to be sure all was seated correctly before buttoning up. The entire rest of the job was easy with no problems. When done the car started right up, does not appear to be any leaks, have no leftover parts, and no blood was spilled!

These 5 pictures are:

• Passenger and drivers side valve train. BMW Synthetic every 8K miles. Doesn't look too bad for 100K miles.
• The reason we change the gaskets. Thats oil in the plug wells, not a shadow.
• Close up of cam lobes, looks fine for 100K miles (ignore the paper towel dust from cleaning the oil so it would not drip down, I'm sure the oil filter will take care of it)
• 100K mile Spark plug next to a new one. Actually to the naked eye, except for color, it did not look worn at all. Under the extreme close-up in the picture you can see some wear, but not bad for the mileage (car was running fine)

Pictures continued:

• Powder Coated Covers. Being magnesium they are very light (like 8 oz.) but also somewhat rough when stripped. I elected to use a glossy coating rather than matt or wrinkle finish which would have hidden the imperfections a bit more.
• Underside of covers. It would have taken me days to get it this clean but the coater tanked, then media blasted the covers prior to coating. 2 Day turnaround, $100, worth every dollar. 
• 2 shots of the finished project. Too bad so much of the valve covers are covered by other things

1 Year Update: Thought I would add it has been nearly a year since these valve covers were powder coated and installed. Happy to report there is no bubbling, peeling or flaking. Still look the same as first put on. As mentioned before, proper process must be followed by the powder coater to get these results. This includes preheating to fully bake out any moisture before the coating is applied.

Powder coating is not magic, there are lots of places that can do it. Just need to find a reliable company that knows what they are doing. Would look for one near you, not sure this is something you would want to do via shipping the parts. For those near the Central/North NJ area I had mine done at:

http://www.trgcoating.com/

A home based business, very nice owner, knows what needs to be done. Has all the processes under one roof (tanking, media blaster and the Powder coating oven). It was driving distance for me. Had arranged in advance a time when he could provide a fast turn around.

As far has how much oil I was losing, it was very little. I knew it was due just by the mileage, and had checked by opening the coil cover (very easy) 6 months ago and saw it was starting to leak. Coordinated with changing the plugs as you are 90% of the way there when you remove the valve covers.

I change the oil every 8K miles. I put in 8 full quarts for the change which puts it about 1/5 quart over the full mark on the dip stick. At oil change time it's exactly on full. At 100K miles engine is still tight (which is somewhat lucky as this car was purchased used @70K miles).

9-1-2008

Dunno is this is a bad VC job or just really bad castings. Here is mine after 6 months. Still no change from when first done (pardon the dust).